train on flat roads

28 Sep 2004 15:08:19 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,

(WBA) said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Ride a fixie into the wind.
--
zk

Zoot Katz said:

28 Sep 2004 15:08:19 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,

(WBA) said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Ride a fixie into the wind.

And if there is no wind you can mount a dragchute on your seatpost.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

WBA wrote:
|| Hello,
||
|| I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
|| There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
|| exercise more efficient?
||
|| Thanks a lot.

Ride faster, in higher gear, and longer. Don't know if that's more
efficient, but it can be more intense.

WBA said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here. There
is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the exercise more
efficient?

Try interval training. Best approximation for hills on flat land. You go
as fast as you can for a set distance, then soft-pedal. Repeat. Repeat.
Repeat.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Accept risk. Accept responsibility. Put a lawyer out of
_`\(,_ | business.
(_)/ (_) |

Roger Zoul said:

WBA wrote:
|| Hello,
||
|| I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
|| There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
|| exercise more efficient?
||
|| Thanks a lot.

Ride faster, in higher gear, and longer. Don't know if that's more
efficient, but it can be more intense.

I agree with Roger, it can be more intense, b/c on hillly terrain, you
can spend a lot of time coasting, (though you can string some hills
together).

How do you ride faster? I refer to it as 'spinning up'. Increase your
cadence to around 95 to 108 rpm in a gear that isn't so easy that you
feel like you're going to fall forwards on the bike, then increase it
even more by pulling on the handlebars and surging forwards. Then go
up a gear (harder gear), and keep that same cadence. Continue and
after a week of daily practice, you can usually stay in the harder
gear, which is now easier, and do it again.

If you don't already have a cadence counter, consider getting one at
your bike shop.

When you have to slow, turning or after stopping, down shift to an
easier gear and start that fast spinning to get yourself going, then
gear up and keep the cadence high.

Keep a journal and push through the days where you feel sluggish (IOW,
don't quit). Your knees shouldn't hurt. If they do, back off and make
sure your seat is positioned properly and raised high enough.

Work up to 90 minutes of interval cadence work, then add sections of
all out sprinting - rest and repeat. At times your cadence may go up
as high as 120 or more. I've found that this kind of work helps you to
keep your normal cadence at or slightly above the recommended 80-85
when you're not thinking about it.

The key is to think 'relax' and spin up. When you're not trying to
push it, check your grip and shoulders to be sure you're relaxing as
much as possible.

-B

"WBA" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Push the largest gear you can at a relatively low cadence. If you want to,
you can do some sprint intervals, but they're incredibly tedious and hard
to push through if you're riding alone. Pushing a big gear at a low cadence
makes you work hard to "stay on top" of the gear, it's hard to cheat &
slack off.

[email hidden] (WBA) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Thanks a lot.

I have to admit, I had a burst of "grass is greener" envy when you
said that. Around here (Colorado) I can't go anywhere without riding
a hill. I love riding hills, but it can be frustrating when you want
to keep your heart rate down (e.g., recovery ride) and you find
yourself going up a 5% grade.

I had a chance to ride a bike trail in Cincinatti a few years back.
Talk about flat! I felt like I could go miles on a single pedal
stroke. I have to admit, I wouldn't want to do it all the time.

As someone said, interval training could be your best bet. Still,
there's no substitute for pitting yourself against a monster climb.
Are there any hilly areas within a day's drive? It might be worth the
trip on a weekend.

JR

29 Sep 2004 08:23:00 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,

(SlowRider) said:

Quoted message said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Thanks a lot.

I have to admit, I had a burst of "grass is greener" envy when you
said that. Around here (Colorado) I can't go anywhere without riding
a hill. I love riding hills, but it can be frustrating when you want
to keep your heart rate down (e.g., recovery ride) and you find
yourself going up a 5% grade.

From my door it's uphill to most destinations that interest me. I can
however head the oposite direction and toodle around on the delta.
--
zk

Zoot Katz said:

29 Sep 2004 08:23:00 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,

(SlowRider) said:

Quoted message said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Thanks a lot.

I have to admit, I had a burst of "grass is greener" envy when you
said that. Around here (Colorado) I can't go anywhere without riding
a hill. I love riding hills, but it can be frustrating when you want
to keep your heart rate down (e.g., recovery ride) and you find
yourself going up a 5% grade.

From my door it's uphill to most destinations that interest me. I can
however head the oposite direction and toodle around on the delta.

I suspect SlowRider meant mountain pass, not hill. Living, riding, and
training in Durango, you recognize the difference 🙂
We don't consider it climbing if it is less than 2 miles.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
remove "mydebt" to reply

Wed, 29 Sep 2004 10:51:32 -0600, <[email hidden]>,

Craig Brossman said:

Quoted message said:

From my door it's uphill to most destinations that interest me. I can
however head the oposite direction and toodle around on the delta.

I suspect SlowRider meant mountain pass, not hill. Living, riding, and
training in Durango, you recognize the difference 🙂
We don't consider it climbing if it is less than 2 miles.

The top of the lump is about 2.5 miles from my door and then downhill
to downtown. For mountains I have to head east or keep going the North
Shore. The road up Cypress and Seymour definitely require "climbing".
We don't have as passes as high as those in the Rockies further south.
--
zk

"WBA" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Thanks a lot.

Adjust your rear brake so it drags on the rim all the time??? :-)

WBA said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Intervals.

Ride a comfortable gear at a fairly high cadence for 5-10
minutes to warm up.

Then kick it up to the next gear and try to keep the same
cadence for 3 minutes.

Kick it down to the original gear for 1 minute.

Repeat until you have 5-10 minutes left to ride, then just
stay in the lower gear and spin.

--Blair
"Repeat until you run out of gears;
then go join a pro team."

Blair P. Houghton said:

WBA said:

Hello,

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Intervals.

Ride a comfortable gear at a fairly high cadence for 5-10
minutes to warm up.

Then kick it up to the next gear and try to keep the same
cadence for 3 minutes.

Kick it down to the original gear for 1 minute.

Repeat until you have 5-10 minutes left to ride, then just
stay in the lower gear and spin.

--Blair
"Repeat until you run out of gears;
then go join a pro team."

I did that yesterday, repeated the 3 min 4x. One trick is to find a
straight section that is about "3.5 minutes long"; when you just are
about to sag at the three minute mark, ride to the next telephone pole
keeping the cadence and speed (then the next!).

-B

"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I did that yesterday, repeated the 3 min 4x. One trick is to find a

straight section that is about "3.5 minutes long"; when you just are
about to sag at the three minute mark, ride to the next telephone pole
keeping the cadence and speed (then the next!).

Tomorrow is October, you must stop riding like that
for the off-season.

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (WBA)

Quoted message said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Don't misunderstand but which do you want, efficiency or variety? Intervals are
hard to beat for exercise intensity but as Peter C. points out they can be
tedious.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

Fabrizio Mazzoleni said:

"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I did that yesterday, repeated the 3 min 4x. One trick is to find a

straight section that is about "3.5 minutes long"; when you just are
about to sag at the three minute mark, ride to the next telephone
pole keeping the cadence and speed (then the next!).

Tomorrow is October, you must stop riding like that
for the off-season.

So true. Yesterday I renewed my membership at the gym. October will be spent
mingling in the gym and at the pool. Just looking good and showing off my
tanned arms and legs.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Per Elmsäter said:

Zoot Katz said:

28 Sep 2004 15:08:19 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,

(WBA) said:

I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
exercise more efficient?

Ride a fixie into the wind.

And if there is no wind you can mount a dragchute on your seatpost.

Actually I happened to read something, after I wrote the above. Where a
coach said.
"If you don't have a sufficiently long hill to do the intervals on, you can
do them on the flats sitting up in the wind."

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Fri, 01 Oct 2004 07:58:46 GMT,
<[email hidden]>, "Per Elmsäter"

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Ride a fixie into the wind.

And if there is no wind you can mount a dragchute on your seatpost.

Actually I happened to read something, after I wrote the above. Where a
coach said.
"If you don't have a sufficiently long hill to do the intervals on, you can
do them on the flats sitting up in the wind."

Wear a rain cape and you can back pedal all the way home too.
--
zk

Per Elmsäter said:

Per Elmsäter said:

Zoot Katz said:

28 Sep 2004 15:08:19 -0700,
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] (WBA) wrote:

> I would love to ride on hilly roads, but I could not find them here.
> There is not much variety when I ride. What can I do to make the
> exercise more efficient?

Ride a fixie into the wind.

And if there is no wind you can mount a dragchute on your seatpost.

Actually I happened to read something, after I wrote the above. Where a
coach said.
"If you don't have a sufficiently long hill to do the intervals on, you can
do them on the flats sitting up in the wind."

I'm not so sure I beleive that. I ride in the flat lands of NJ
(Southern half) and we experience some pretty good winds. I know how
to handle the winds but it has never helped me on the hills. Of course
it could be a psychological thing as there are a few small hills here
that beat me up (short and steep) while bigger & longer hills are less
of a problem. Wind is something I can't see and I just have to deal
with for 2/3 of the year.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry [email hidden]
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog